Indika review

My relationship with religion is one that is fractured. Misplaced belief and fear from growing up in a Christian household, I found a lot to relate to with Indika, one of the most unique games of 2024. It is surreal, funny, and terrifying, but not necessarily for the reasons you may think, and its approach to how you play will either put you off early on, or pull you in to a fascinating deep dive into the effects of religion and the church, and how it can do more damage than good.

In Indika, you start off completing menial tasks in a 19th century monastery in Russia, going from person to person, with no real knowledge about who you are or what you’ve done in the past. One particular task in the beginning where you have to fill up a barrel with buckets of water following trip after trip to the well will tell you everything you need to know. Odd Meter is intentionally relating the act of following religion to such a repetitive task, and it hit me with how you do what you’re told with the belief it ends with gratification, but more often than not you’re left unsatisfied and just as unfulfilled as you were when you started.

It’s such a bizarre game, and it’s something I loved so much. Weird dreamlike sequences, 16-bit sections where you revisit Indika’s past, the conversations you have with others and the voices you hear in your head with the devil himself. Inspired by the great surrealist filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos, with a bleakness seen in the films of Darren Arnovsky, it blends reality with nightmares in an artistic way that will either confuse or consume you, depending on your openness to it. Whether you’re into its style, it’s hard to ignore the wonderful creativity on display.

Indika follows a relatively linear path, where you go from place to place and solve a variety of puzzles that are never too difficult. Some are done through the narrative power of hearing the devil in your head, and by praying you can rearrange the world that your evil thoughts start to dismantle. The world around you starts to crumble, but your focus on god helps to bring it back together. There are other puzzles that require you to think a little outside the box, but rarely will you struggle as the focus is more on the story and the conversations around religion, god, and the way it can affect us in myriad of ways.

The moments where you play in a 16-bit art style are interesting as they delve into Indika’s past and give you a backstory to the character. They can be a bit too easy as can many of the puzzles in the game, but Indika is about bringing players into the story so deeply that it makes sense for the actual playing to be straightforward. Some of the traversing through different biomes feels monotonous at times, but despite these slower moments there’s a lot of sequences where the art plays with your mind, makes you asks certain questions about who Indika is, and what is really going on in this skewed reality.

The visuals are impressive and while some environments are a bit dull, most of the detail and designs are pretty in their own bizarre way. The audio is also fantastic, with a soundtrack that does so much to elevate the weird nature of Indika, and some of the sound effects catch you off guard and leave you feeling uneasy every step of the way. There’s a lot to enjoy about Indika, and when all of these ideas come together with its music and visuals, there are seldom games out there that are as inventive as this.

Indika tells a dark tale about religion and its affects, and poses many questions to the player as they embark on both an adventure to deliver a letter and one of self-discovery. Puzzles may not be difficult but they are constantly varied, and while gameplay is a little sluggish, there’s a story that kept me hooked throughout. Too few developers take these kinds of risks anymore, so when they do and it pays off, it’s great to see. It may not be perfect, but it’s certainly one of the most enjoyable and creative games I have played all year.